Group urging Mo. lawmakers to restore funding for DUI checkpoints

A group of mothers is heading to Jefferson City Tuesday to urge the Missouri legislature to bring back DUI checkpoints.

The checkpoints are mostly a thing of the past after state lawmakers cut funding for checkpoints down to $1.

Deborah Weinstein’s son David was killed by a drunk driver in 2011. She and other members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) will be going to the capitol on Tuesday to advocate lawmakers to bring back the funding.

Many cities such as Creve Coeur, St. Charles and Overland stopped doing the checkpoints when the funding disappeared, but Wentzville police stopped years ago for other reasons.

“For us, we’ve seen more productivity out of a saturation patrol because it’s not predictable,” said Wentzville police chief Kurt Frisz.

Frisz said checkpoints became ineffective because people could warn others about them on social media. The state is still funding saturation efforts. Frisz says they are more effective.

“The checkpoints are a very high-profile thing, the saturation is low profile, almost a stealth operation to where I think it has a greater impact on driving because you don’t know where it is or when it’s happening,” said Frisz.